oung count had
gone through the form of dropping his line over the side and pulling it
up, baitless and fishless, from time to time, while I had dispensed with
even this shallow pretence of employment, and had stretched myself out
full length upon the cushions which I had thoughtfully brought with me,
inhaling the salt-laden breeze, and luxuriating in perfect inaction,
till such time as it had become necessary for us to think of returning
homeward. My companion had been sighing portentously every now and again
all through the afternoon, and had repeatedly given vent to a sound
as though he had been about to say something, and had as often checked
himself, and fallen back into silence. So that I was in a great measure
prepared for the disclosure that fell from him at length as we slipped
before the wind across the broad lagoon, toward the haze and blaze of
sunset which was glorifying the old city of the doges.

"Do you know," said he, suddenly, "that I am desperately in love?" I
said I had conjectured as much; and he seemed a good deal surprised at
my powers of divination. "Yes," he resumed, "I am in love; and with
an Italian lady too, unfortunately. Her name is Bianca,--the Signorina
Bianca Marinelli,--and she is the most divinely beautiful creature the
sun ever shone upon."

"That," said I, "is of course."

"It is the truth; and when you have seen her, you will acknowledge that
I do not exaggerate. I have known her nearly two months now. I became
acquainted with her accidentally--she dropped her handkerchief in a
shop, and I took it to her, and so we got to be upon speaking terms,
and--and--But I need not give you the whole history. We have discovered
that we are all the world to each other; we have sworn to remain
faithful to each other all our lives long; and we renew the oath
whenever we meet. But that, unhappily, is very seldom! for her father,
the Marchese Marinelli, scarcely ever lets her out of his sight; and he
is a sour, narrow-minded old fellow, as proud as he is poor, an intense
hater of all Austrians; and if he were to discover our attachment, I
shudder to think of what the consequences might be."

"And your own father--the stern old general of whom you told me--what
would he say to it all?"

"Oh, he, of course, would not hear of such a marriage for a moment. He
detests and despises the Venetians as cordially as the marchese abhors
the _Tedeschi_; and, as I am entirely dependent upon him, I should not